- NickelSearch (NIS) teams up with lithium heavyweight Allkem (AKE) to probe the former’s acreage for lithium potential
- AKE’s Mt Cattlin lithium mine is only 10 kilometres away from NickelSearch’s acreage in the Wheatbelt-Goldfields region of WA
- The company is to conduct a fresh rock sampling run to potentially generate fresh leads
- NickelSearch will depend on Allkem’s acumen and existing expertise in the local region’s geology
- NIS shares last traded at 6 cents
Nickel explorer and mining hopeful NickelSearch (NIS) has announced a new technical collaboration partnership with lithium heavyweight Allkem (AKE).
The latter will leverage its geotechnical resource base to examine NickelSearch’s acreage for lithium potential.
This announcement comes as NickelSearch’s share price has declined year-to-date, coinciding with falls in the nickel price and, overall, grades that have failed to capture the market’s attention.
The partnership makes sense: Allkem’s Mt Cattlin lithium mine is just 10 kilometres away from the Carlingup nickel project. It’s evident that NickelSearch’s ability to position itself as a dual nickel-lithium explorer could act as a catalyst to generate investor interest.
Allkem has already been reviewing the company’s existing datasets on lithium potential – the existence of these datasets suggests that the company has been exploring this opportunity for some time, especially as the bullish case for nickel in 2022 has waned.
NickelSearch will now proceed with a fresh rock-sampling routine to identify high-priority targets under the guidance of Allkem geotechs.
In explaining the partnership to investors, NickelSearch highlighted that Mt Cattlin produced 131,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate in FY23.
“The exploration team at Mt Cattlin is sharing its vast technical expertise on greenfield lithium exploration and NickelSearch is sharing the data from the work completed to date. These discussions are based on the spirit of partnership,” NIS Managing Director Nicole Duncan said.
“Allkem, the owner and operator of the Mt Cattlin lithium mine in Ravensthorpe, [is] located just 10km away from Carlingup. Given the similar geology between Mt Cattlin and Carlingup, the companies have agreed to work together to assess the lithium potential.”
NIS shares last traded at 6.2 cents.